The little boy she’d come to save lay pinned to the ground beneath the creature. It regarded the boy with such intensity it didn’t notice her arrival. Saliva dripped from the maw, and its psychotic human eyes stared a hole into the child’s chest. The bane’s head twisted so far left it nearly spun round, then turned right to the same degree, the move calculated to terrify. Extending a slimy pink tongue, the creature licked a target on the boy’s chest. The forked appendage recoiled, and the bane sneered perversely. Suddenly its head reared back, then rushed forward, the jaws wide, intent on biting deep. Ciaran launched into motion faster than she’d known possible. Doubt clouded her mind as she moved. Would her fists be enough to fell the bane, or would she be sacrificed to its hunger? She steeled herself, remembering the woman she had been before Raphael. Strong—maybe a bit arrogant—her skills in the kitchen a source of pride. A surge of emerald energy lit through her veins.
